Anonymous hacks passwords of Syrian government officials (VIDEO)

A masked hacker, part of the Anonymous group, hacks the French presidential Elysee Palace website on January 20, 2012 near the eastern city of Lyon. Anonymous, which briefly knocked the FBI and Justice Department websites offline in retaliation for the US shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload, is a shadowy group of international hackers with no central hierarchy.

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Jean-Philippe Ksiazek

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The hacker group calling itself "Anonymous" posted the passwords and email addresses of scores of Syrian government officials, Foreign Policy reported on Monday. The list can be found here. Many of the officials' passwords would have not passed a simple security test: "12345."

Haaretz reported that one email (click here to read) contained tips for an interview Syrian president Bashar al Assad gave Diane Sawyer on ABC: "It is hugely important and worth mentioning that 'mistakes' have been done in the beginning of the crises because we did not have a well-organized 'police force.' American psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are 'mistakes' done and now we are 'fixing it.' It's worth mentioning also what is happening now in Wall Street and the way the demonstrations are been suppressed by policemen, police dogs and beatings."

The email was written by Sheherazad Jaafari, who works for the Syrian mission to the United Nations.

More information will be available as the emails are processed. Stay tuned for more updates.

See the ABC interview here:

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